Linux Kernel Roadmap — Fundamentals to Advanced

1. Prerequisites

1.1 C programming fundamentals

1.2 C build and toolchain fundamentals

1.3 Linux user-space fundamentals

1.4 Operating system fundamentals

1.5 Computer architecture fundamentals

1.6 Git and collaboration fundamentals

2. Kernel Development Environment

2.1 Source tree setup

2.2 Kernel source tree layout

2.3 Build dependencies

2.4 Kernel configuration

2.5 Kernel build

2.6 Bootable lab environment

2.7 Development workflow

3. Kernel Architecture Overview

3.1 Kernel responsibilities

3.2 Execution contexts

3.3 Kernel address space

3.4 Kernel/user boundary

3.5 Monolithic modular kernel model

4. Boot Process

4.1 Firmware and bootloader

4.2 Early kernel boot

4.3 Kernel initialization

4.4 Init and user space handoff

4.5 Boot debugging

5. Processes and Scheduling

5.1 Process model

5.2 Process lifecycle

5.3 Scheduler fundamentals

5.4 Scheduling classes

5.5 Scheduler internals

5.6 Real-time scheduling

5.7 Scheduler observability

6. Memory Management

6.1 Memory management fundamentals

6.2 Page allocator

6.3 Slab allocators

6.4 Virtual memory areas

6.5 Page cache

6.6 Swap and reclaim

6.7 Huge pages

6.8 NUMA memory management

6.9 Memory debugging

7. System Calls and User-Kernel Interfaces

7.1 System call fundamentals

7.2 Adding a system call

7.3 ioctl interface

7.4 Procfs

7.5 Sysfs

7.6 Netlink

7.7 UAPI design

8. Interrupts, Timers, and Deferred Work

8.1 Interrupt fundamentals

8.2 IRQ handling

8.3 Softirqs and tasklets

8.4 Workqueues

8.5 Timers

8.6 Timekeeping

9. Concurrency and Synchronization

9.1 Concurrency fundamentals

9.2 Atomic operations

9.3 Spinlocks

9.4 Mutexes and semaphores

9.5 Reader-writer synchronization

9.6 RCU

9.7 Memory barriers

9.8 Lock debugging

10. Virtual File System and Filesystems

10.1 VFS fundamentals

10.2 Path resolution

10.3 File operations

10.4 Filesystem types

10.5 Journaling and consistency

10.6 Filesystem development

10.7 Filesystem debugging

11. Block Layer and Storage

11.1 Block layer fundamentals

11.2 Block I/O path

11.3 I/O schedulers

11.4 Storage drivers

11.5 Device mapper

11.6 Writeback and dirty pages

11.7 Storage debugging

12. Device Model and Driver Core

12.1 Driver model fundamentals

12.2 Device lifecycle

12.3 Bus types

12.4 Firmware description

12.5 Device resources

12.6 Udev integration

13. Character Drivers

13.1 Character device fundamentals

13.2 Character device registration

13.3 User data handling

13.4 Blocking and polling

13.5 mmap in drivers

13.6 Character driver testing

14. Hardware Drivers

14.1 Platform drivers

14.2 PCI drivers

14.3 USB drivers

14.4 I2C drivers

14.5 SPI drivers

14.6 GPIO and pinctrl

14.7 Clock, reset, and regulator frameworks

14.8 DMA

15. Network Stack and Network Drivers

15.1 Networking fundamentals

15.2 Packet receive path

15.3 Packet transmit path

15.4 Network device drivers

15.5 Netfilter and nftables

15.6 Traffic control

15.7 XDP and high-performance networking

15.8 Network debugging

16. eBPF

16.1 eBPF fundamentals

16.2 BPF program types

16.3 BPF maps

16.4 BPF verifier

16.5 BPF tracing

16.6 BPF development tools

17. Namespaces, Cgroups, and Containers

17.1 Namespaces

17.2 Cgroups

17.3 Container primitives

17.4 Container runtimes

17.5 Kubernetes kernel interfaces

18. Security and Hardening

18.1 Kernel security model

18.2 Linux Security Modules

18.3 Capabilities

18.4 Seccomp

18.5 Kernel hardening features

18.6 Integrity and trust

18.7 Vulnerability classes

18.8 Security testing

19. Tracing, Profiling, and Debugging

19.1 Kernel logging

19.2 ftrace

19.3 perf

19.4 BPF tracing tools

19.5 Crash debugging

19.6 KGDB and live debugging

19.7 Static and dynamic analysis

20. Testing

20.1 Kernel selftests

20.2 KUnit

20.3 LTP and external tests

20.4 Filesystem testing

20.5 Fuzzing

20.6 Performance testing

20.7 Continuous integration

21. Architecture-Specific Development

21.1 x86

21.2 ARM and ARM64

21.3 RISC-V

21.4 Other architectures

21.5 Cross-architecture concerns

22. Virtualization

22.1 Virtualization fundamentals

22.2 KVM

22.3 Virtio

22.4 Containers vs virtual machines

22.5 Virtualization debugging

23. Power Management

23.1 Power management fundamentals

23.2 CPU power management

23.3 Device runtime PM

23.4 System suspend and resume

23.5 Thermal management

24. Rust for Linux

24.1 Rust kernel fundamentals

24.2 Rust kernel APIs

24.3 Rust driver development

24.4 Rust limitations and integration

25. Kernel Contribution Workflow

25.1 Documentation and process

25.2 Finding maintainers

25.3 Patch preparation

25.4 Patch submission

25.5 Review and merge process

25.6 Stable and backport workflow

26. Kernel Subsystems

26.1 Core kernel

26.2 Memory management

26.3 Filesystems

26.4 Storage

26.5 Networking

26.6 Security

26.7 Drivers

26.8 Virtualization and containers

27. Release and Version Awareness

27.1 Release types

27.2 Current active lines

27.3 Release cadence

27.4 Major historical milestones

27.5 Version-specific learning targets

28. Learning Path

28.1 Phase 1 — Foundations

28.2 Phase 2 — Kernel basics

28.3 Phase 3 — Drivers

28.4 Phase 4 — Core subsystems

28.5 Phase 5 — Advanced kernel development

28.6 Phase 6 — Production operations

28.7 Phase 7 — Upstream contribution

29. Practical Projects

29.1 Project 1 — Kernel Build Lab

29.2 Project 2 — Hello Kernel Module

29.3 Project 3 — Character Device Driver

29.4 Project 4 — Procfs and Sysfs Interfaces

29.5 Project 5 — Platform Driver

29.6 Project 6 — Interrupt and Workqueue Lab

29.7 Project 7 — Memory Debugging Lab

29.8 Project 8 — eBPF Tracing Tool

29.9 Project 9 — Filesystem Mini-Lab

29.10 Project 10 — Network Driver Simulator

29.11 Project 11 — Kernel Contribution Patch

29.12 Project 12 — Kernel Performance Investigation

30. Competency Checklist

30.1 Junior kernel competency

30.2 Mid-level kernel competency

30.3 Senior kernel competency

30.4 Advanced kernel competency